My Trails

There was a strong wind this morning but it was out of the south and I was headed north. It’s not too often I have a tailwind, so Minnie climbed up over the pass with ease. I stopped at a few overlooks that I missed on the way down but didn’t linger very long in the cold, biting wind. Even people on tour busses jumped out to take pictures and scurried back aboard in a hurry.

There were two areas of construction. The first one I came to had signs up that the road was closed. That was rather discouraging until some of us talked to the girl with a walkie talkie and found out they were doing some blasting up ahead and the road would only be closed another 15 minutes. On another stretch of gravel road construction I met a SUV that threw a stone that hit my windshield with a smack. I thought I had escaped damage until I stopped and noticed the dime-size star of cracked glass. Bummer!

When I was 20 miles from Whitehorse, I stopped at a place called Robinson Siding. It was built back during the gold rush days to let two trains pass on their way to and from Skagway. I was walking back looking at the junk laying around and a big black bear came walking down the tracks. He/she stopped and looked at me for a moment then slowly walked into the woods. I didn’t see any cubs around but I lost all interest in walking any further back into the woods where some old buildings stood.

I found a laundromat not far from the Walmart in Whitehorse, ate at McDonald’s, filled Minnie’s propane, water, and gas tank, and stocked up on groceries at Walmart. This Walmart has a terrible selection of groceries. Everyone says to go down to the supermarket to buy food but I found enough here. And besides, they are nice enough to let us park for free so I did my part to buy in their store.

I noticed a home and hardware store a short block from Walmart on my way back from the laundromat, so after I parked I walked back to see if they had the parts I was looking for. I found the brackets, bolts, and glue I need to mount my solar panels on top of Minnie, so all I need now is a nice place to do it and some warm weather.

This picture has nothing to do with Alaska. My Daughter Karen and Grandson Noah on Graduation Day!

My plan is to head back into Canada tomorrow. I need to do laundry and fill my propane before heading north again. I will probably spend the night at Whitehorse Walmart after taking care of a few chores, and then get an early start Tuesday. I’m thinking I would like to head towards Dawson City before going straight up the Alaskan Highway. Following the Yukon River is the route the gold seekers traveled, and I can follow it along and see the history along the way.

The temperature here in Skagway has taken a down turn. From a balmy 85 degrees with high humidity two days ago, a strong wind moved in and dropped the temps into the 50s today. There are some nice walks near my camp and I get out and stroll around each day. The park service has been making walking paths through the remains of the Dyea ghost town and each day I go down to see what new signs they have put up.

This campground really filled up over the weekend. There were only two sites left when I looked around Saturday morning. One by one they all pulled out today, and besides me only one other RV is still here. It is funny to watch the Blackbirds swarming the vacated camps, looking for scraps and crumbs left by the campers.

I hope my next stop will be at a warmer time. I like to get out and explore on Honda but not when it’s 50 degrees.

They were called Stampeders. The Tlingit call them a name in their Native language that meant greenhorns. They were mostly young men, coming from all over the world, headed to the Klondike to make their fortune in the newly discovered goldfields. They came by the thousands, landing in Skagway on large ships and transferring their goods and supplies to small boats to be offloaded in a town called Dyea, a short hike to the start of a trail that would take them 40 miles over the Chilkoot pass to the Yukon River.

I have always liked trails with history. It is probably one of the reasons I fell in love with the Appalachian Trail. Like the AT the Chilkoot Trail is not easy. Royal Canadian Mounted Police stressed that all prospectors take a ton of supplies with them in to the Yukon so that they would not starve for a year. This required many trips up over the steepest part of the pass. They either had to hire the Tlingit people to carry their supplies or make several trips up and down the mountain.

There were stories about the prospectors leaving heavy items along the trail as they struggled with their load up the mountain. I saw it first hand on the AT. All along the approach trail to the top of Springer Mountain where the AT starts, I saw all sorts of items left from someones pack as they fought to lighten their load. And it was no different back in 1898 as the prospectors set off with high hopes and every piece of hardware they thought would make life easier in the wilds of the Klondike. They soon realized that the burden was too great to carry.

The Chilkoot Trail has been known as the world’s longest museum. They say you can see camp stoves, cast iron cookware, shoes, and all sorts of odds and ends discarded by the trail. I wanted to see some of those items tossed away from their packs, so this morning I decided to hike a couple miles up the trail.

The trail starts out by the river and climbs steeply several hundred feet up the side of the mountain. The temperature today was the warmest it has been this year and the humidity was wicked. I was sweating and breathing heavy right off the bat. As soon as I started to sweat the bugs found me – they love the smell of sweat – and I had to stop and apply DEET.

The trail finally decended to the river and the walking was easy then. I kept walking another mile hoping to see some remnants of a time gone forever, but I never found a single man-made object. After over 100 years anything left along the trail has been swallowed up by nature. No one is allowed to touch or disturb any artifact from the gold rush time, so the moss and digestive action of the forest has hid any hint of an item cast off.

I reached a signpost that told I had come 1.6 miles. It seemed further than that in my out-of-condition state. I pushed on for another half mile hoping to see something historical but it was not to be. The woods were eerily quiet and I began to think of brown bears while out all by myself. I never worried about black bears in anyplace I’ve hiked but grizzlies give me the willies. The sign at the trailhead said to never hike alone and make noise so the bears aren’t surprised. I started to sing.

On the return hike I met many people. All in all I ran into seven groups of 8 to 10 people in each group. I asked one group how many ships were docked in Skagway and was told that four were there now. One of the guides said it would be like this the rest of the summer. He told me that soon there will be groups of thruhikers going all the way over the pass to Bennett Lake.

It was a good hike even though I didn’t see any artifacts. The park service has improved the trail by making steps up some of the climbs and they have constructed bridges over some streams. I know the old timers didn’t have bridges or steps, but I was kind of glad I did. If Daryl would fly up here and hike with me, we could do the whole thing!

The weather has been gorgeous today. I think it hit 80 this afternoon. The snow up on the mountains is shrinking with all the warm weather and sunshine. The only drawback will be the bugs coming out to feast and the sun shining in the window at 11 pm when I’m trying to sleep.

There was enough sunlight today that I got a complete, one hundred percent charge on my batteries. I’m thinking that I may mount my other two solar panels on the roof of Minnie when I get back south this fall. There are advantages with portable panels, but when I travel I have enough stuff to put away and get out!

I rode into Skagway to get groceries today. I’m sure I bought too much and paid way too much, but I told myself before I went in the store to buy what I wanted and not even look at prices. If I look at prices in a tourist town, I usually end up getting nothing. I have enough food to last another week if I want to stay that long.

When I got back to camp I took a walk over to the Dyea town ruins. I have walked through there a couple times now but not been to every corner. When I turned down a path to a new boardwalk the park service is building, I met a park employee.

I told her that I had a hard time figuring out where the town was because the buildings have rotted away and there are no signs to tell where things were.

“Your really not supposed to be in here while we are working on the paths.” She explained.

I played innocent. “Ah. I just walked over from the campground, I didn’t know.”

“Oh. That’s why you didn’t see the signs. It’s alright we just don’t want anyone to get hurt when there are machines working. If you come back in an hour we will be gone. I put up some signs down there to tell about what you’re looking at.”

She was very nice. We walked back up the path, made a couple remarks about the nice weather, and I asked her why this campground was free and the park service campground on the other side of the inlet was pay? She wasn’t sure but said this campground was run by the city and not the park service. I’m just glad I found it.

In the morning I moved about 5 miles to another campground. I’m just across the inlet from my last camp, but I like this campground a lot better. For one thing it has cell service. I’m only getting three bars of 3G, but it seems like lightning compared to what I got across the river. There is still construction in the camp and down the road from here in the historic Dyea townsite.

There is no charge to stay here. The only thing I can think is that the campground is so new, and still being constructed, that they haven’t yet started collecting money to stay here. I will probably stay here a few days and recoup some money by averaging out what I paid in the last camp.

I haven’t figured out how to get water yet. I still have a few days supply and I should be OK with my tanks. The one thing I need to resupply is food. My fridge is getting pretty empty. I’ll probably ride into town tomorrow and pick up a few basics. I don’t want to spend a lot on food because I will be back in Whitehorse in a few days.